


A drink to those who mean a lot

by a_wonderingmind, The8thDalmuti



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Shenanigans, the girls have a plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24999700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_wonderingmind/pseuds/a_wonderingmind, https://archiveofourown.org/users/The8thDalmuti/pseuds/The8thDalmuti
Summary: Thompson and Sousa have been invited over to a Stark mansion to commemorate Chief Dooley. Angie and Peggy have other, more amusing, ideas.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	A drink to those who mean a lot

One might think, looking at the two young men standing outside one of New York’s more prestigious apartments late in the evening that they were there for some sort of soirée, or gala, or something. The way they were glaring at each other, however, seemed to somewhat refute that particular assumption that any passer-by might have made. 

“Just knock, Thompson,” Sousa demanded.

On the contrary, the reason they stood at the rather ostentatious doors was of a more solemn nature. Howard Stark, a man they had spent a significant degree of the time and energy pursuing over the previous months, was getting full into the swing of his apology tour, and had offered this particular apartment to Carter and one of her friends to make up for getting her kicked out of The Griffith. And they had invited them over for drinks in honour of Chief Dooley.

Jack was secretly hoping that it wasn’t the neighbour who had cried into his chest. Judging from the girl’s defence of Carter, _(fat-head male co-workers indeed)_ , his finely honed skills of deduction told him that the likelihood of that was slim. 

Sure enough a familiar voice with a distinctive New York accent said something behind the door and laughed, clear as a bell, as it swung open. 

“Hey!” the young woman behind the door exclaimed. “I know you two! You’re the two Feds who got past Miriam and above the first floor of The Griffith! You know,” she leaned against the door frame and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Not even the great Houdini managed that.” 

“Oh?” Sousa managed, more unsure what to do with this latest statement than her earlier tears.

Just then Carter rounded the corner and sighed at her roommate. “Angie,” she admonished cheerfully. “Do stop embarrassing Thompson and Sousa and let them in.” 

“Alright, English.” She tipped her head. “Come on in boys!”

Jack and Daniel came inside the door frame and shuffled their feet for a moment. 

“Oh right,” Carter said abruptly. “Sousa, Thompson, I believe you haven’t met Angie Martinelli? We used to live next door to each other at The Griffith. Angie, meet Daniel Sousa and Jack Thompson.” 

Jack and Daniel glanced awkwardly at each other for a moment. Luckily, Miss Martinelli rescued them. 

“Oh we already know each other,” she claimed cheerfully. “When they came to arrest you Peg, they interviewed me.” 

Angie glanced at Peggy, clearly having some conversation, and Daniel had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the way her eyes had glinted as she said the word ‘interviewed’.

Carter arched one dark brow but otherwise had no reaction to the reference to her arrest. 

“Do come in,” she said, a hint of mirth in her voice. “You can hang your coats and hats up over there.” 

She gestured with one slim hand to an overly ornate coat stand standing against one wall of the hallway. Daniel and Jack both gaped at it. 

“Ugly thing isn’t it?” Miss Martinelli commented, voice filled with humour. 

Jack coughed. “I suppose it is.”

“Howard’s taste is, at times, somewhat questionable,” Carter said dryly. “We should be thankful at least that he has Mr Jarvis to attempt to temper his worst excesses. Although I will grant you that his taste in women does not appear to be influenced by Mr Jarvis, or indeed by his recent experience with Dottie.” 

Both men just rolled their eyes. 

At least Carter’s gift for understatement appeared to have survived, Jack noted, as they dutifully hung up their outerwear, before following Carter and Miss Martinelli out of the hallway and into a luxurious parlour. A silver tray holding four crystal glasses and a couple of crystal decanters sat on a low coffee table. 

The two women seated themselves at the respective ends of one of the couches, Daniel took an end of the opposite sofa and Jack settled himself comfortably into an armchair. Carter poured and handed round the tumblers. 

“Nice digs,” he said admiringly, taking a sip of his drink. 

“We prefer to not think about what’s happened on the ’nice digs’ here,” Carter replied, eyes sparkling mischievously. “It makes it easier to sleep.” 

Jack resisted the urge to squirm at the thought of what Stark might have done. There were far too many options, if he was catching what Peggy was implying. Daniel had gone red as a tomato, and he didn’t want to look at him in case he spat out his drink.

“To Dooley,” Peggy said, raising her glass, mercifully sparing them the embarrassment of having to comment on what she had just said. 

“To Dooley,” the two men echoed quietly. 

They drank in silence, draining the glasses, each caught up in what their boss had meant to them. An example, a mentor, a begrudging ally. Peggy handed around the decanter for a refill. They all took it gratefully.

Peggy looked up from contemplating her glass at Jack. “How’s Gam-Gam?” 

Daniel choked on his drink. 

“Gam-Gam?” Jack spluttered. “How could you possibly - "

He cut himself off and looked at Angie Martinelli, perched on the opposite end of the sofa to Peggy. Angie was struggling to hide her smile behind her glass. She lowered it and cleared her throat. 

“When I look back on it, it seems to me that I have been living here like a poor woman, just from hand-to-mouth.” 

“A speech from Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll House’,” Peggy said, tipping her glass in her friend’s direction. 

“A little adapted for purpose perhaps,” Angie agreed, toasting Peggy in return. “Kept you away from the window didn’t it?” She turned to the men sitting across from them, eyes glinting.

“Very successfully,” Peggy noted, grinning. “Maybe you should consider a career in espionage Ang.” 

Daniel joined the dots first, and decided the best way to keep the girls’ scheming from being targeted at him was to play along. “Yeah, Jack, how is Gam-Gam?”

“You? Sousa!” Jack yelped. 

Daniel only smiled back passively. He would get no help from him.

“To be fair,” Peggy pointed out. “Angie fooled you as well, Daniel, didn’t you pass off the responsibility for comforting Angie onto him?” 

Unprepared for it to be turned back on him, he spluttered a useless denial.

“Carter raises a good point,” Jack said, smirking. 

Angie piled on too. “As it turns out, I could have not cried. But I’m an actress, so it’s in my bones to be as dramatic as possible,”

“You don’t say,” Daniel mumbled, feeling as if he had just been set upon by his sisters.

“After all, you could no more stop Angie from crying than you could Laurence Olivier,” Peggy quipped, with another smug smile. 

“So you were outside the window?” Jack asked. 

Peggy rolled her eyes. “Of course. On the ledge. Angie noticed me just as you knocked on her door.” 

“Peggy came in through my window and out my door after you’d all gone,” Angie added. “What is it with men and their inability to deal with tears?” 

“That and any mention of ladies things,” Peggy agreed. “That’s how I got out of work to go to Spider Raymond’s club and get what I needed before you all got there.” 

Angie chuckled and they clinked glasses again.

Jack and Daniel both gaped at the two women celebrating how they had got round an entire team of government agents. 

“Perhaps this is a lesson in not underestimating the ‘inferior sex’,” Peggy said. “Dottie is another excellent example of this.” 

“Iowa?” Angie asked. “The Russian gal who pretended to be a ballet dancer.” 

“The very one,” Peggy agreed. “After all,” a hard glint in her eye. “If as women, no man will ever consider us an equal, well, that just makes it so much easier to get around you.” 

Peggy turned back to Jack with a pleasant smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

“So, Jack, you never told us. How is Gam-Gam?”

**Author's Note:**

> So I (@a-wonderingmind) and my RL friend (@The8thDalmuti) have been stuck in lockdown like the rest of the world, and we may have got a bit bored… 3 hours later we had this. It was just a hc originally, but we hope it became an enjoyable story!
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated! I'm also on tumblr @a-wonderingmind :)


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